Re: NYT and pkt seminar ('Bill bags the free market')

[BILL MITCHELL <ECWFM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Clive Gaunt says he doesn't like my language. that's tough. i reserve the right
to say what i like. which middle class law says that one word is bad and
another good. shakespeare was loathed by the elite of his time b/c he invented
new words and phrases that the hoy poloi didn't like. conservatives never like
change. now of-course the hoy polooi wet themselves over royal command
performances of the bard.

as to facts.

in OZ, real wages have fallen consistently since 1983. aggregate demand grew
rapidly (provoked by some old fashion deficit federal spending) from 1984 to
1989, then with tight money policy and severely constrained AD from 1989
onwards, employment fell rapidly and unemployment rose to record post war
levels (we had 18 per cent interest rates no less). recently with stimulus from
the federal g again (most of the GDP growth has been coming from export growth
and federal spending NOT private investment) employment has started to grow
again and unemployment falling.

superimposed over this entire period has been falling real wages, low militancy
on the behalf of unions, and severely constrained money wage outcomes
engineered until recently by the centralised wage system.

productivity has been low, profits at record levels twice in the last decade
and investment very constrained. the wage share has deteriorated by around 13
percentage points in the 11 years since 1983.

financial deregulation to make that market free, only say mergers from the
banks not a fabulous array of new entrants and now they are recording record
profits themselves although all but one large bank nearly died in the late
1980s due to their greedy and ill-informed portfolio policies.

sounds like that free market is really happening down here folks. i could tell
you much more about social conditions among the poor and the deterioration in
the education system and the continued destruction of our forests and water
ways, and that sort of thing, but i am sure all economies are experiencing the
same thing as these absurd (emotional word) new right type policies exact their
toll.

kind regards
bill
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